The Adam Jones Style

I’ve always been a big fan of Tool and I’m of the opinion that Adam Jones’ guitar work shows us a lot of ways we can improve our playing, particularly in regards to timing.

The music might seem daunting when you listen to their tracks, but this post will break things down into some of Tool’s more popular, yet, simpler riffs. We’ll do this without having to cover full songs. If you think you might want to learn the rest of a song, this will get you a head start.

I’d suspect that if you can understand these riffs enough to play along, the rest of the songs might be easier than you think.

Jones actually constructs his riffs using pretty simple tactics. Power chords, drop D and a lot of open rhythmic notes are all pretty typical methods.

So when learning Tool’s music, I’d recommend keeping the following things in mind:

Tool’s complexity lies mostly with their timing.

Though a rhythmic player, a lot of Jones’ riffs simply ride the beat that’s already being laid down.

Jones’ solos are usually simple.

A high percentage of the guitar playing will use drop-D power chords, or a variation of them.

I’m saying that it’s not as hard as it sounds and you shouldn’t be intimidated by the guitar playing that you hear on Tool’s tracks.

Now if you’re trying to do a drum cover, that might be a little different. But in our case it’s all about the guitar.

One of Tool’s more popular songs from the mid ’90s, Aenima makes references to Bill Hicks, Edgar Cayce and L. Ron Hubbard (in reference to the Church of Scientology) so the lyrical depth is fairly extensive.

The dominating guitar riff, on the other hand, is surprisingly easy to learn.

Once you learn it the bulk of the song follows the same pattern. Note that the tuning is in drop-D.

Tool Guitar Tabs: The Rest of the Music

If you’re interested in learning some of these songs, start here and use the riffs as a springboard for learning the rest of the music.

I’ve always found that’s easier to start with one riff that catches your ear and build out from there.

Sure, Tool’s songs are usually seven-minutes long, but a lot of the riffs are repeated and are easier to put together than they sound. In other words, if you can learn the tabs we’ve listed hear, you’re capable of learning full tracks.

Continuing the Conversation

If you have questions about these Tool guitar tabs, concerns or constructive criticism, we want to hear about it over at Twitter and Facebook.

That’s where we try and keep the fire alive.

Want to learn more songs?

Learning songs is an incredible amount of fun.

Especially if you have good instruction.

But all too often we’re left with incomplete, incorrect and generally unhelpful material when it comes to actually learning songs on the guitar.

But there is a great method for learning songs the right way.

We’d recommend giving Guitar Tricks 14-day free trial a test run, since they have a massive library of songs where professional instructors take you through each segment step-by-step. There’s more material available then you could ever possibly get through.